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For those with whom I have talked with about this whole blogging thing, you know that I am a pretty big supporter of the Typepad blogging service by SF-based SixApart – they also run Vox, LiveJournal and MoveableType. With that said, I have also used Blogger and read many a blogs that were made using WordPress.

Since I know that everyone has different needs, wants, quirks, etc. and not every service will be great for every person, I would be interested to know why folks use each service and, if appropraite, why not others.

Here are couple quick thoughts about each to start some discussion.

BLOGGER – If your soul is owned by Google like I am this might work for you. Keep in mind that there is VERY little ability to be creative in the design. I suspect this may change with Google’s purchase of Blogger, but who knows. This was where I originally started blogging, but eventually felt like I wanted more ability to customize the design. Would be interested to know from current Blogger users if this has indeed happened. Upside is that this is FREE and integrates with your Google profile.WORDPRESS– Seems like all the cool people use WordPress. I always appreciate the designs of those using this platform – though I am starting to notice some common designs – AND it is free. My sense from WordPress is that you do have to know some things about coding if you are going to use WordPress to the fullest. I wonder if this would be too difficult for a tech-challenged person to use. Combined with the fact that it is free, if you have some tech juice, this might be the one.

TypePad – My favorite mostly because of the ease of use and design capabilities. As one who is not a traditional "coder" the user interface is pretty easy to understand, easy to install widgets, easy to pretty much do anything. Typepad would accommodate the extreme beginner who does not want to tweak anything, but will allow for the eventual growth into increased customization. This one does cost (about $90 for the year at the Plus Level) but it is worth it. One can also just begin at the Basic Level which is about $50/year. I do offer a disclaimer that if you do use TypePad with my referral, I get a referral bonus. Still, this is what I use so have no trouble recommending it.

I know there are many other services one can use, so apologies for those who are using MySpace, Xanga, Drupal, etc. for
their blogging platforms. Feel free to offer your opinions as well.

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I use WordPress software on my own server (shared server techinically). It’s free, completely movable and completely backup-able. You don’t have to be that geeky to do it, either.
My hosting company, Dreamhost, gives me unlimited hosted domains for $90 a year. And they will automatically install WordPress (and other platforms) for you. Decently.org, the DAIO podcast site, my blog, and a handful of other sites are all under this plan.
Since it is open source there are a gzillion people working on new widgets, themes, and updates to the main software.

I’m pretty happy with Blogger, and I’m too lazy to change to a different service. My only complaint is the lack of variety of backgrounds. I also add blog posts to my MySpace page; however, those are usually announcements rather than narrative posts.

I use WordPress because it’s open source.
If you want to set it up on your own web server with your own MySQL database, yes, you’ll need a little bit of tech savvy, but if you have your own web server, you probably aren’t afraid of uploading a few files and folders.
If you want a free account hosted by WordPress, you can go to the WordPress website and set one up. No need to be able to code, and you can choose from a number of different themes.

I can’t weigh in on TypePad, since I haven’t used it. I don’t want to pay for something that I don’t have full control of.
I, like you, started with Blogger. It does have the ability to customize it extensively, but not for the novice user. Although Blogger’s newest version does allow you to tweak the fonts and colors of existing themes. Still, there are a ton of theme sites out there that are fairly easy to install.
I use WordPress, and love it. There is a difference between WordPress.com (which is a free, hosted service where you can’t customize very much) and a WordPress.org blog (where you install the software on your own domain and can customize it to your nerdy little heart’s content). Nothing seems to beat WordPress in terms of the enthusiasm of its user base, which means that there are tons of plugins and themes available for it.

Hi Bruce –
I use Blogger and I didn’t have a clear reason why – it just looked easy to use and I didn’t have time (or thought I had the knowledge) to tweak anything with it.
You are correct with the upside with using Blogger: extremely easy to use, integrates with all things Google, popular, free, and so on. The platform has a widget based process to add customized feeds, HTML, video, lists, and so on. A new user would have no problems with adding content.
Sadly, nothing has really changed with the ability to truly customize the design template from Blogger/Google’s end. For instance, when I wanted to add a third column, I had to find a third party solution. The solution worked, but Blogger is content with “here’s what we got with templates and stuff…and that’s pretty much it.”
If anyone wants to tweak anything, becuase they found a cool thing to do or just want to change things up with the template design, they’ll will have to work at it and find solutions. If they don’t care – then Blogger works fine.
If I ever made a new blog…I would use another service.
My $.02 – probably not worth that much…:-)

Bruce Reyes-Chow

One of those "consultant" types who spends his time, blogging, teaching, speaking and writing. He also happens to be a Presbyterian Teaching Elder, father to three daughters, smug San Franciscan and FANatic of the Oakland Athletics Baseball club. Thanks for reading.